Make the Serve-Yourself Approach to IT Service Management Effective

The self-serve approach to IT service management can be cost-effective as well as more efficient for your IT department… if it’s implemented properly. Otherwise, you could have a situation in which end users are unhappy with the IT department, and your staff still find themselves overworked and unable to deal with truly mission-critical issues.

How do you make self-serve IT service management effective? Artificial intelligence can play a key role. Read on to learn how AI improves IT service management as well as customer satisfaction.

AI and Self-Serve IT Service Management: What’s the Connection?

How are AI and self-serve IT service management related? The linkage is quite strong; AI is the linchpin of self-serve IT service management.

We’ll use the example of a knowledge base. A knowledge base houses a repository of knowledge and information, and provides the vehicle that enables users to find solutions to their problems without involving the IT staff. Intelligent self-service solutions use machine learning to analyze the knowledge base, and deliver relevant answers directly to the end user via mechanisms like chatbot (more on that later) or email. Relevance is key here, as the AI is able to contextually understand user queries, and provide the best answer possible from the knowledge base.

The knowledge base is only one key item in the realm of self-serve IT service management. Chatbots are another: as alluded to previously, they allow end users to find the answers they need on a self-serve basis. A user types in his or her question into the chatbot interface, and the chatbot will search through the knowledge base to find an answer. If the chatbot can’t find an answer, it can provide alternative options like suggestions from the web or the ability to submit a help request.

“Chatbots allow end users to find the answers they need on a self-serve basis”

While AI facilitates easy access to information for end users, it also improves IT service management automation. We’ll illustrate with another example: an end user submits an incident ticket through to the help desk. Immediately, the smart automation system sends him or her a notification about estimated wait time based on historical data of similar ticket types. Additionally, the system can recommend possible solutions from the knowledge base based on the contents of the ticket request. All of this is done in an effort to provide amazing customer satisfaction and reduce the time-to-completion for low-level tickets.

After the ticket is closed, the IT service management software will follow up by sending the user a customer satisfaction survey – that saves the help desk staff time and energy.

Self-Serve IT Service Management: Getting Smarter Every Day

The reason self-serve IT service management is so effective is that AI learns from every interaction it has with end users. When it provides the right answer through the knowledge base for a problem and the user is satisfied, the self-serve IT service management system learns that solution for that problem should be recommended in the future.

Smart self-serve IT service management saves everyone in the organization time and money. Instead of waiting for tickets to be resolved, end-users get the solutions they need faster and IT staff can devote more time to traditional IT tasks. To learn more about how smart self-serve IT service management can improve your organization, read the ebook 7 Reasons Why AI Will Change Everything on Your Service Desk.

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